15 Responses to “Two Good Verses”

I think the verse is saying that the fact that someone has a fear of God is an indication that they’re starting to have wisdom. In other words, it is saying that it is wise to fear God, not that fearing God leads to wisdom.

This sounds like a rejection of Keshav’s point. You are saying it WILL lead to knowledge. If that is true why should we assume that the verses in god’s book do not mean that? Isn’t it odd to say to Gil “Why would you think the verses say fearing god leads to wisdom? It is true that fearing god leads to wisdom and it is true that this is god’s book and it is true the yours is a logical reading of the words, but you are wrong and the verses only say this true thing by accident.”

Bob, you gotta be rigidly empirical in your debate with Beale. Read up on the history of the tariff of abominations. Learn the history of Argentine and Indian protectionism, especially in the field of computers. Point to places that industrialized with free trade. Look up empirical studies. You’re gonna convince noone with pure theory. I don’t know much about trade, so I doubt I can help you with this task. But be careful.

[sc. praxeology] aims at knowledge valid for all instances in which the conditions exactly correspond to those implied in its assumptions and inferences. Its statements and propositions are not derived from experience. They are, like those of logic and mathematics, a priori. They are not subject to verification and falsification on the ground of experience and facts. They are both logically and temporally antecedent to any comprehension of historical facts. They are a necessary requirement of any intellectual grasp of historical events (Mises 1998 [1949]: 32).

Economics is about everything that logically results from people’s attempts to satisfy their preferences.

Any economically relevant empirical evidence, therefore, would be *reflections* of those attempts, according to Austrian Theory, since human preferences come logically prior to empirical attempts to satisfy them.

You need a theory to interpret the data, LK. Just having the data isn’t enough.

“If we had not in our mind the schemes provided by praxeological reasoning, we should never be in a position to discern and to grasp any action. We would perceive motions, but neither buying nor selling, nor prices, wage rates, interest rates, and so on. It is only through the utilization of the praxeological scheme that we become able to have an experience concerning an act of buying and selling, but then independently of the fact of whether or not our senses concomitantly perceive any motions of men and of nonhuman elements of the external world.”

I take the first quote to mean we should use humility in our every day lives. Submitting to the will of God is bringing yourself to the level of everyone, as humility is a central part of being a Christian. If we remain steadfast in our ethical position we will then never submit to sin, although sin is always lurking.

The second passage is also really good in that it shows how those who fear God have complete reverence for him, thus will obey his commands to become better people. We must remember that goes is Love, who also dispels all fear, yet it would be important understand what fear means in the bible. Psalms 36:2 clarifies this misunderstanding of fear, as well as why hubris or egotism can be dangerous:

“Sin directs the heart of the wicked man; his eyes are closed to the fear of God.”

Some people get confused in what the meaning of fear is and thus believe God will strike us down if we don’t fear him, but what really happens is we walk through life blind and thus make mistakes. We are guided by temptation and many bad desires, whereas if we fear God, we see more clearly and thus make better choices. If we ever saw God, his grandeur would bring us to awe and it would be a totally inexplicable experience. It is a fear of understanding everything that makes us human. It is reverence for this unknown wisdom that makes us live our lives humble to God. And over time by building knowledge of the Holy One, learning about who God is, we build more understanding about life.

I would encourage all of you to read the NT and focus in on this character named Paul. Watch Paul travel, watch him grow. Watch him condemn the flesh. Get to Galatians and watch Paul shoot down the Law.